Politico says so at least:

A month after Michael Steele became the first African-American chairman of the Republican National Committee, key party leaders are worried that the GOP has made a costly mistake — one that will make it even harder for them to take back power from the dominant Democratic Party.

Steadily becoming a dependable punch line, Steele has brushed back Rush Limbaugh, threatened moderate Republican senators, offered the “friggin’ awesome” Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal some “slum love,” called civil unions “crazy” and promised more outreach to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings” via an “off the hook” public relations campaign.

He even threw a shout-out to “one-armed midgets.”

That’s in just 30 days on the job — and that’s just the PR part.

On the organizational side, Steele does not have a chief of staff, a political director, a finance director or a communications director. Last week, one of the two men sharing the job of interim finance director was forced to resign.

For now, “the fourth floor,” as the RNC’s executive suite is known, is being run by a pair of consultants.

“There’s frustration that there’s no discipline, no planning,” said a well-known Republican consultant. “He’s risking being overexposed by accepting every interview, which makes gaffes more likely.”

Obviously, Steele has to set up a splendid organization. If he doesn’t ASAP, the Republican Party will lose even more elections. As for those gaffes, well, they’re gaffes alright, but not exactly horrible ones, except for the apology to Rush Limbaugh that is.

Far worse are the attacks on Steele. These attacks aren’t coming from Democrats but from fellow Republicans. They are seemingly unable to understand that the more they ‘leak’ and nag about this or that, the worse they make their party and thus themselves look. If they want to help their party they should shut up for a while, tell Steele privately what needs to happen and support him publicly. It’s called being a teamplayer, and there’s a reason teamplayers are valued as highly as they are, especially in politics.